I am a dentist. I felt strongly that half my staff was against me (4 of 7 employees). So I fired them. I inherited them when I bought my business a few years ago. I am very ethical but I do care about gross revenue (as any owner should). They never fully embraced caring about revenue production or understanding that bonus pay is tied to profitability. Nonetheless, I feel it is a failing on my part as a leader that they as a group were not on my team. What can I do as a small business owner to display better leadership and engender better office morale. I should mention that I pay above market wages, have better benefits than market competitors, work with my employees to satisfy the number of hours they need and I run a schedule that is very predictable 8-5 with a lunch and we do not deviate. Further, we take great care of our patients and the staff never has to worry about patient satisfaction or quality of care. Thank you for your input.
It’s really great that you’re reviewing your leadership and seeking improvement. And also are working on principles of ethics and compensation related to productivity. So kudos.
Having said this, your key to transformation is thru improved communication with your employees. Ensure that your vision, goals, and expectations are known to the staff. Have more of staff meetings over coffee, donuts and pizzas. This will help breakdown communication barriers. Encourage more of dialouge and feedback from employees where you listen to concerns and issues raised. Yearly or six monthly team building activities or meetings will help.
Is shared performance incentives tied with your revenue goals doable? This can motivate everyone to contribute more activly to your business’s success.
Look at your processes and systems closely. Change where necessary. Train your staff on how to better interact with clients. Where there is customer appreciation, provide this feedback to the employee in team meetings. Recognition of exceptional service will boost morale and create a more positive work environment.
Finally, have a system to get customer review or feedback. This should be collected and looked at every week. A 10 on 10, or where the customer says they will recommend your practice to family and friends should be recognized and rewarded every quarter. A detractor score, would be when the customer says they would not recommend your service. A personal call to the customer to understand what went wrong, and a process to implement changes based on the customer feedback on how your service could be improved will place your practice as the best in town.
Encourage your happy customer to post their feedback in social media.